This has been a typical week in the United States, one punctuated by yet another mass shooting. The latest shooting occurred in a Nashville, Tennessee, Christian elementary school. Three 9-year-olds and three adults, as well as the assailant, died. Sadly, the location of the shooting and the ages of the victims are not new. We have seen elementary school mass shootings before.

“Why in God’s name do we allow these weapons of war on our streets and at our schools?” President Joe Biden asked as he called on Congress to pass a new assault weapons ban.

This week, Michael J. Klein, who belongs to a group of injury epidemiologists and trauma surgeons who studied the impact of the country’s previous assault weapons ban on mass shooting deaths, writes: “In the years after the assault weapons ban went into effect, the number of deaths from mass shootings fell, and the increase in the annual number of incidents slowed down.”

Klein also explains how mass shootings changed after the assault weapons ban expired in 2004.

Lorna Grisby

Senior Politics & Society Editor
Gun control activists rally in Nashville, Tenn. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

Nashville attack renews calls for assault weapons ban – data shows there were fewer mass shooting deaths during an earlier 10-year prohibition

Michael J. Klein, New York University

Analysis of the 10 years in which the US banned sales of assault weapons shows that it correlates with a drop in mass shooting deaths – a trend that reversed as soon as the ban expired.
A member of Israel’s military reserves takes part in a protest on March 16, 2023 in Bnei Brak, a city east of Tel Aviv. Photo by Eyal Warshavsky/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Israel’s military reservists are joining protests – potentially transforming a political crisis into a security crisis

Dan Arbell, American University

Israel’s leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, has fired the country’s defense minister. That deepened the country’s crisis over proposed judicial reforms that even military reservists have protested.
A voter casts his ballot at an early voting location in Alexandria, Va., Sept. 26, 2022. AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

When it comes to explaining elections in Congress, gerrymandering is overrated

Charles R. Hunt, Boise State University

A loud chorus of Democrats – and some Republicans, too – has for years claimed gerrymandering is costing their party seats in Congress. Is it true?

As the global musical phenomenon turns 50, a hip-hop professor explains what the word ‘dope’ means to him

A.D. Carson, University of Virginia

As the world celebrates the 50th anniversary of the birth of hip-hop, a scholar of the culture and its musical genres explores the meaning of the word ‘dope.’

Presidential hopefuls are considering these 5 practical factors before launching their 2024 campaigns

Robbin Mellen Jr., University of South Florida

Senators, governors, representatives and past presidents have to weigh multiple factors before declaring their 2024 run for president. Campaign financing is one of them.

Reaction to bronze sculpture of Coretta and Martin Luther King Jr. in Boston hasn’t been good – and that’s not bad for art that shatters conventions

Kristin Ann Hass, University of Michigan

A memorial to Coretta Scott and Martin Luther King Jr. has received stinging criticisms, but time will tell whether ‘The Embrace’ will endure as a cherished work of public art.

What’s at stake as protests rock Israel: 3 essential reads on democracy, security and human rights

Naomi Schalit, The Conversation

Three scholars examine the implications of the crisis roiling Israel as hundreds of thousands of people protest across country.

This course uses science fiction to understand politics

Nicole Pankiewicz, College of Coastal Georgia

Science fiction does more than entertain – it can also be used to better understand the political forces that shape the societies in which we live.

Why the growing number of foreign agent laws around the world is bad for democracy

Maxim Krupskiy, Tufts University

Foreign agent laws claimed as a tool to fight back against foreign interference can also be used to silence critics and repress law-abiding NGOs, independent media and individuals.

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